New York City Approves Controversial 'Poor Door' In Luxury Condo

The New York Post reported yesterday that New York City has
approved developer Extell’s plans to build a separate entrance
for its affordable-housing tenants at an Upper West Side condo.

Dubbed the “poor door,” the controversial approval was a
blow to New Yorkers who believe the separate entrance to be
classist and distasteful.

The 33-story luxury condo on 40 Riverside Drive will have 55
low-income units and 219 market-rate condominiums facing the
Hudson River, according to The Post. The low-income units
will be located on floors two through six with a studio going for
$845 a month, a one-bedroom for $908, and two-bedrooms for
$1,099.

Market-rate buyers, on the other hand, would be paying more than
$1,000 per square foot. The building will be part of Extell's
planned Riverside South dev elopement, which will stretch from
72nd to 59th Streets.

The building is a part of New York City's "inclusionary zoning"
strategy for providing affordable housing to low-income
families, itself a controversial program that gives developers
more floor area and large tax breaks in exchange for building on-
or off-site affordable housing.

The “poor door” is not the only one of its kind in the city. A
few other large development projects also have separate entrances
for renters and owners, and it’s not uncommon for mixed-income
buildings to provide amenities for the building’s market-rate
owners that they don’t provide for middle-income or low-income
residents.

And not everyone agrees that the “poor door” is the main problem.
Josh Barro, Business Insider’s former politics editor, made the argument last year that if New York
City fully taxed these market rate apartments instead of giving
developers tax breaks for building affordable housing on-site
(it’s estimated the property tax abatements have lost NYC $2.9 billion in revenue), they
could use that money to spend on building more affordable
housing.